As announced in our February article, OWB has already accomplished the first two missions of 2024 as scheduled. Between 5 and 10 February, Professor Frédric Dubrana and his team visited the Mittaphab hospital in Vientiane, Laos. Welcomed by their local colleagues Dr. Khambanh and Dr. Songvinay, the mission – which lasted just under a week – was extremely productive: 7 hip replacements, 5 knee replacements, a lot of traumatology. The training value of such missions, which involve the collaboration and intervention of local colleagues alongside OWB surgeons, is always highly significant.
The second mission this year, between 31 March and 11 April, took Dr Jérôme Berthelet’s team to Cambodia, to Siem Reap, where OWB has already been active for several years. A new surgery block has just been inaugurated at the hospital, which has ensured that the doctors on mission have an excellent intervention faculty. Also in Cambodia, numerous operations were carried out, prosthetic and trauma-related (especially at weekends: the surgeons report the unorthodox conditions of the very intense local traffic, resulting in a high number of serious accidents on the road…). The OWB doctors, when on the scene, obviously intervene with all their expertise and the passion that drives them in every situation that requires their care. A job that is undoubtedly hard but also very gratifying, where help and knowledge are brought to where there is a truly real need, often difficult to fulfil.
Let us remember that the surgeons on mission provide their services free of charge, often contributing to travel expenses, and relying on private benefactors and non-profit organisations and foundations (contributions in kind -instruments- and monetary donations) to finance the missions. The Siccardi family, together with Medacta International SA and all of us at the Medacta for Life Foundation, are always deeply touched by the words of heartfelt thanks for the support provided that regularly come from the OWB surgeons after their missions. On our part, our deep respect and thanks go to them for their incredible humanitarian work.
